


Strawberries and Dance Floors

by Sinful_sinnoh



Category: Splatoon
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bar/Pub, Dancing, F/F, Fluff, HAROLD THEY'RE LESBIANS, Slow Dancing, sappholopods
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:13:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23925952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sinful_sinnoh/pseuds/Sinful_sinnoh
Summary: Marina giggled slightly, before her face flushed at the realization that a girl called her pretty. She looked around, scanning the general area for the mystery girl, but couldn’t tell who she was, as there were literalhundredsof people in that side of the room alone. She looked down at her new drink, experimentally taking a small sip. Strawberry.
Relationships: Marina & Pearl (Splatoon), Marina/Pearl (Splatoon), pearlina - Relationship
Comments: 8
Kudos: 31





	Strawberries and Dance Floors

Marina absentmindedly twirled the straw around again in the tall glass, stirring her still entirely full drink. Eyes fixed on the hundreds of people dancing, she took a small sip of the alcoholic beverage, face forming into a grimace at the taste. _People actually liked this?_ She took another sip, noting the warmth that flooded to her throat and rose to her cheeks. While the sensation was nice, it wasn’t quite worth the awful taste she didn't think she'd ever get out of her mouth.

She sighed, focusing her sight on the drink in front of her rather than continuing to fixate on the dance floor. No point in focusing on what she couldn’t have. It’s not like she had anyone to dance with, as she’d come alone to the club, and she couldn’t really see herself dancing with a stranger. It always seemed nice in romance films, but it probably was more awkward than it was worth. Anyway, if anyone did ask her to dance, it’d be way more likely to be some creepy guy rather than the type of pretty girl she envisioned herself dancing with in her romantic fantasies. 

The song that had just come on was pretty catchy though, the first good song to play so far, and subconsciously, her foot started tapping against the shiny wooden floor. She fought against the urge to sing out loud, eventually coming to a compromise with herself and settling on just quietly humming. Her fingers began to dance to the beat in perfect time, glittery green nails drumming lightly on the table as her body swayed to the beat. She was savouring the beat, lost in the music, and it didn’t even matter that there were so many people around! No one cared what she was doing, it was a bar after all. For that matter, everyone was off doing their own thing, so no one was even paying attention to her. 

Or at least that’s what she thought, until she was snapped out of her music-induced trance by a drink being placed, _loudly,_ in front of her by the bartender. 

“Excuse me. Someone over there-” the bartender gestured vaguely to their left. “bought this for you. She left a message for you too.” they said, placing a napkin covered in scribbles next to the drink before walking away to serve another customer.

_She? She_ left a message? Marina grabbed the napkin and read it as quickly as possible. 

_beer is a disgusting, awful drink that no one deserves to drink, especially not a girl as beautiful as you. -p_

Marina giggled slightly, before her face flushed at the realization that a girl called her pretty. She looked around, scanning the general area for the mystery girl, but couldn’t tell who she was, as there were literal _hundreds_ of people in that side of the room alone. She looked down at her new drink, experimentally taking a small sip. Strawberry. This one actually tasted quite nice, and she cast aside the horrible, nearly full beer in favour of this sweet, syrupy cocktail. 

Over the course of the next ten-or-so minutes, she kept glancing over to her right, checking to see if she could get a sight of the girl as she slowly sipped at her drink. After she finished it off, she took one more, longer look, hoping to see the girl, though yet again, she couldn’t figure out who she was. Just as she was about to look away, she noticed someone hop out of a seat and start to walk towards her. 

She appeared to be around Marina’s age, though quite short, and also _exactly Marina’s type._ Slightly goth, slightly punk, and _really cute._ She was wearing a black dress that showed off her curves despite her petite frame, and she had an air of confidence to her. Upon making eye contact and noticing Marina staring, she smiled softly at her and waved, making Marina’s heart skip a beat, face heating up as she smiled back.

When she got to Marina’s seat, she outstretched her arm, holding her hand out towards Marina. 

“May I have this dance, milady?” the girl asked with a cheeky smile.

Marina couldn’t help the grin that spread across her face. “I’d love to, providing you never call me that again.” she replied, accepting the other’s hand. Soft.

Mystery-drink-buying-girl guided Marina to the dance floor. “Fair. Could I get your name as a replacement, then?”

“Marina. And you are…?”

“My name’s Pearl, but you can call me tonigh-” she stopped abruptly and sighed. “Damn, I _really_ suck at pickup lines…”

Marina burst out laughing, giggles spilling from her lips. Pearl stared at her in shock for a moment before she, too, burst out laughing at herself. 

After the two had composed themselves, Pearl wrapped her arm around Marina’s waist and began to gently move her body to the rhythm of the music, which luckily happened to be one of the slow songs. Marina immediately fell into place, matching the other girl’s speed before carefully twirling her. Pearl placed her hand on Marina’s upper back, other hand intertwined with Marina’s, and with a surprising amount of strength, dipped her at the waist. 

The two continued to dance like this for the remainder of this song as well as the two that followed, falling into a rhythm, enjoying the music, but most of all, the intimacy. 

The song ended and there was a lapse before the next one started playing. Pearl’s eyes locked onto Marina’s, looking at her in awe. “Whoa… You’re _really_ good. Where’d you learn to dance?”

Marina shrugged. “I could ask you the same. I was just following your movements.”

Pearl’s eyes widened even more. “Really? Holy shit, that’s _amazing!_ I took lessons and everything for _years_ , and you can dance like that by just ‘following my movements’? You’re _incredible._ ” 

Marina felt warmth rush to her face from the compliment, eagerly anticipating the next song so that they could keep dancing together, but to her, and Pearl’s, disappointment, that had been the last slow song. It had gone back to some loud, poppy, dance song, and she frowned.

“Hey, you wanna get a bite to eat?” Pearl asked. “There’s a place with really good crepes that’s only like a five minute walk from here.”

Marina perked back up, nodding excitedly. The two left the bartender a tip on their way out, leaving the packed bar. Pearl finally noticed their hands were still interlocked, giggling nervously as she let go. The walk there was, as Pearl had stated, only a few minutes, and the two didn’t talk about much, just idly chatting about the bar and complaining about how few slow songs they had played.

They only really started talking after they had been seated at the small restaurant. Pearl ordered her usual, strawberry-chocolate crepes, and Marina settled on mint chocolate.

“So,” Pearl started, “what’s your most embarrassing childhood memory?”

Marina blinked in confusion before smiling, a big grin that took over her face. “What kind of question is that?”

Pearl grinned back at her. “An interesting one. Small talk’s boring. I can even go first if you want.”

“No, I can, just let me think.” Marina paused, contemplating. “Oh! I got one! In seventh grade, I had to read a poem in front of the whole school. I ended up mumbling the whole thing, and then as I was walking offstage, I tripped and smashed my head against the railing. It didn’t hurt that bad, but yeah. Embarrassing.”

“Ouch, yikes. That’s funny though, cause mine also involves being onstage.”

Marina leaned in, clearly very interested. “Spill.”

Pearl chuckled. “Alright. So, I was like, maybe ten? And I was singing onstage for a fairly large audience in my hometown. Anyway, I was doing fine until this one point, I guess I got too into the song or whatever, and I ended up singing so loud I, uh… broke the speaker? And might have caused a tiny shockwave? Honestly, the shockwave _could_ have just been a coincidence, but it's super unlikely that was the case. So… yeah. That's my embarrassing story."

"Oh my god, I didn't even know that was possible!" 

"Me either, until it happened!"

"Wow…" Marina mused. "Do you still sing, or did that incident turn you off of singing forever?"

"Nope, I still sing! If you'd believe it, I'm even part of a band."

"That's so cool! I'm actually into music myself, I'm studying it in college right now and I make electronic music on the side."

They continued to chat about their shared love of music for a while, getting lost in a world of just the two of them, and were only eventually cut off by the server approaching them.

"Terribly sorry to bother you, but we're about to close." 

Pearl tilted her head in confusion. "Huh? I thought you were open later than this." she said before she turned back to Marina. "My bad, sorry for dragging you here for such a short while, I thought they were open until three A.M., but I guess I was… wrong…" she trailed off as she caught sight of the clock on the wall. _Oh._ "Wait, we've been here for four hours?"

Marina looked just as shocked as Pearl was, and the two quickly scrambled to tidy up their table, apologizing for the inconvenience as they tipped almost fifty percent before hastily leaving. 

"So, uh…" Marina started once they were outside the restaurant, "it's pretty late, and I have class tomorrow afternoon."

"Oh! Right, yeah! Of course!" Pearl exclaimed, eloquent as always. "Can I, uh, walk you home?"

Marina nodded. "That'd be really nice, I'd like that a lot."

Pearl's face lit up at the reply, and she started talking as they began walking. "I was wondering… I don't know how to say this, but, um, I've never really clicked with anyone like this before and I had a really good time, and I was wondering if you'd like to do this again sometime?"

Marina smiled, face flushing for what felt like the millionth time that night. "I, uh... I feel the same way."

_"Really?_ Oh, _thank god,_ that would have been _so_ embarrassing if I had said all that and it was just me."

They reached Marina's apartment building fairly quickly as it was pretty much next to the bar they had originally been at, and they exchanged numbers before Marina went inside.

Pearl hesitated, thinking for a second before handing Marina's phone back. 

"Really sorry if this is too forward or anything, but could I, uh…" Pearl looked away, biting her lip piercing nervously.

Marina, immediately realizing what Pearl was asking, leaned in without hesitation, closed her eyes, and pressed their lips together in a soft kiss. Strawberry again. After a few seconds, Marina pulled away slowly, glancing awkwardly at Pearl, who was a blushing mess.

Pearl laughed nervously, stuttering out her words when she spoke. "Well, th- that was nice! Really, really nice. Anyway, I hope you have a good night! Or morning I guess! Either way I hope it's good!" she rambled on, before waving goodbye to Marina and skipping off. 

Marina walked into the building, feeling lighter than she'd ever felt before, like she was walking on air.

_So much for not dancing with a stranger, huh?_ Marina thought, flopping onto her bed as soon as she made it to her apartment, dreams filled with nothing but the amazing girl she had met that night.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading! any feedback is very much appreciated, and i hope you have a lovely day!


End file.
